]]>Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring the May SOTM, which is Just Sayin’, a set of 14 stamps.

If you have come here from Melissa Robinson’s Blog , you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around. If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog. This month we have about 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month’s SOTM and other great Close to My Heart products on their blogs. To visit each blog for some great ideas just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

I decided to challenge myself to create a complete flat card which is much better for mailing and I also stuck with neutral colors! I penciled a grid before stamping the squares and erased the lines when I was finished.

Now “Hop” on over to Maria Myers’s Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the Just Sayin’ Stamp Set is only available through the end of May!

This set is available on my website for only $5 with a $50 purchase. Shop now!

I used the ShinHan Markers in a number of different ways. I used the to color accents. This works great with a number of embellishments. For my layout I colored the Silver Shimmer Trim and the Marquee Enamel Shapes. I also used the ShinHan Markers to color and shade the Irresistibles Eclectic Die-Cuts chipboard letters. To do this, I first added “stripes” of each color onto the letters, then I colored and blended with the lighter color from it’s color into the darker color to blend them together.

Welcome to the Close to My Heart ShinHan Marker Blog Hop! We will be featuring the new ShinHan Markers now offered by Close to My Heart. These are high-quality, alcohol-based markers. This hop is a circle so if you are starting here, continue until you make your way back. If you have already started, you should be coming from my upline Tina Lovell.

This was a fun card to make and it turned out very colorful! The Washi Tape was place on White Daisy Cardstock, trimmed, and then stamped with StazOn Ink.

TIP: These markers will bleed through your cardstock so make sure that you are coloring on a separate piece of paper that will be attached to your work. If you want to color directly on your cards as I have here, then another option is to line the inside of the card.

The Santatizer at the top is just a small bottle of hand sanitizer covered with cardstock (idea from here). The tic tac container was made from this example. Once you get started, these are easy to make and work great as stocking stuffers and small gifts.but

I used the basic layout from the right side of the Freedom Layout but changed up the title (I used Sweet from page 85). You can’t see from my picture but I used Glitter Mist on the white overlay and it looks so pretty in person. I added a stamping to the background of the stars. I can’t remember the stamp set I used but any background or pattern would work. The punched out green star also fit perfectly within the overlay to add focus to my title.

]]>Welcome to our Technique Blog Hop! This month we are highlighting the Technique as shown on page 55 in the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book and expanding it to include all coloring techniques!

This blog hop is a circle so you can start wherever you want and continue through to see all the fabulous artwork incorporating this technique. So if you are starting here, just continue until you make your way back. If you have already started, you should be coming from Amy Kaminski’s Blog.

I took a different approach to the technique this month. I am showing some of the things besides stamped images that you can color with the new Close to My Heart alcohol markers. I used both colors that come in the Twilight set but for the most part I did not notice a difference in color. I did like the lighter color for the butterflies but I did one with each and you can see there is not much of a difference, if you can tell at all. The sparkles are a very light color with they are finished. My favorite coloring was on the pearls. They took the color very well and are beautiful! I would recommend either heat-setting the pearls and sparkles or letting them out to dry. After 10 minutes, my pearls were still wet to touch but they were dry overnight.

Thanks for stopping by! Please continue onto Joy McHargue’s Blog where you will find some additional artwork highlighting this technique! Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you thought of my variation and happy hopping!

I started with a sketch from Magic. It was a fun one because of all the pictures that I was able to add. I have a few more so I will be adding flip flaps over the bottom left photo. This is a great stamp set for Easter. I used all of the images. The eggs were fun to color and added a lot of color to the layout. This set also works great with the adhesive springs for an added playful element. I didn’t use them on this layout but I have used them on a milk carton that I’m almost finished with and will share soon.

]]>Welcome to our Technique Blog Hop! This month there are 13 of us highlighting Multicolor Motifs as shown on page 110 in the 2011 Autumn/Winter Idea Book! This technique is when you use your markers to apply different colors to the same stamp for a multicolored image.

This blog hop is a circle so you can start wherever you want and continue through to see all the fabulous artwork incorporating this technique. If you are coming from Michelle Battatori’s Blog, you are on the right track!

Exclusive Inks markers make it easy to selectively ink parts of a stamp with different hues. Just apply each ink color using the brush tip of the marker, then stamp on your project for multicolored images. This is such a great technique to add more options to your stamp collection.

TIP: Once you have finished coloring your stamp, “huff” on it before you stamp. This will moisten the ink if it has taken you some time to do the coloring.

It must be the lighting on the first photo because you can see the border of circles just fine in real life. Here is a closeup that shows it better:

I created the circle border with one stamp (that had the multiple circles). To save some time, I first inked the stamp in Baby Pink (my lighter color) then I added Crystal Blue to every other circle using my marker. I used this same technique with the flourish, inking it in pink first and then adding the blue with a marker before stamping. You could also create lighter and darker shades of the same color within a stamp by stamping off the color and then using the marker where you want darker spots before stamping your final image.

Another modification to this technique is to ink only the portion of the stamp that you want (instead of masking!). I did this for the words on my layout and used ink pads instead of markers. I inked the middle word with Baby Pink ink. Some of the pink got on the other words but I didn’t worry about that since it was a lighter color. Then I inked the outer words with the edge of my Crystal Blue ink pad, this time making sure I didn’t get any blue on the word Laugh.

Thanks for stopping by! Please continue on to Bethaney Harlan’s Blog where you will find some additional artwork highlighting this technique! Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you thought of my variation and happy hopping!

For a list of all the blog hop participants, scroll down to the previous post.

]]>This month for our CTMH Product Spotlight Blog Hop we have opted to give you a variety of ideas that you can use that are perfect for the Holiday season.

The blog hop makes a circle so if you are starting here just continue until you make your way back and you will have made it through them all. If you have already started and are coming from Vicki’s blog then you are on the right track.

These ornaments were a lot of fun to decorate. You can keep them together as a set or divide them up, keep them for yourself or give them as gifts. You can use them as decorations, not just ornaments and they can be used to embellish cards or layouts too! I added sentiments to the center of some of mine but you could also put a picture in the middle. I like to use Liquid Glass as my adhesive when working with Dimensional Elements (chipboard). It also works well to add a bit to ribbon ends to prevent fraying.

Welcome to the Close to My Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring the October Stamp of the Month: Share the Magic. If this is your first stop, just continue through the hop until you make it back here. If you have already started hopping and came from Kami’s blog then you are on the right track. See the previous post for a complete blog list.

This stamp set is great for making tags. I just grabbed my pile of scraps and stamped away! I used markers, watercolor pencils, and a blending pen with inks to color the images. To add some glitz and dimension I added sparkles to the Christmas tree, glitter to the snowmen, liquid glass to the Christmas lights, and bitty brads to the second snowman. These would also make a fun and simple craft for your kids or a group. The presents image works great for any occassion – Birthday, Christmas, or Baby!

This is my first use of my Copic markers. I don’t have a lot of colors to play with so the blue challenges fit well. I didn’t realize that Staz On ink needed time to dry but lesson learned. I refrained from added any extra embellishments because I thought it was pretty as is. So surprisingly there is no bling on this card! I can’t decide if I want to add a sentiment so I’m just leaving it blank for now. It was fun crafting the day away. I’m not sure if I will continue or take a break. I’m running out of daylight so I probably won’t share any more today unless I end up doing a time-sensitive challenge.

]]>Well, it is yet another snow day here today. The kids are playing nicely so I am going to do my own playing. My goal for the day is to see just how many challenges I can complete so I am hoping for multiple posts (the organizer in me likes to keep things filed and neat). So here we go…

I found this stamp set in my stash (twice!) so I thought it was a good starting point. I outlined the inside of the small hearts with a marker before adding the stickles. This seemed to change the color a bit for more contrast which turned out better. Since you can’t have too much glitter I added more to the top of the stickles. I had fun making this glittery card!

I am very pleased with this layout. I used the Diecuts with a View paper from a stack that I bought online and I didn’t like it as well when I got it so it became buried in my stash. It was the perfect colors for these layouts and I don’t think I noticed before that it had a sheen shine that is very pretty. The pearls I used come in strips and I used them to create my own flourishes and used the remaining pearls as centers for the flowers. I’ll have a layout tomorrow using ScrapSketch #3.

I liked my Grandma owl that I made the other day on this card that I decided to use the same colors for a Grandpa owl. I didn’t have any patterned paper that I wanted to use (or cared to try matching since I wasn’t thinking and colored first). So I just used cardstock. I needed something more than plain cardstock though so I embossed lines on the blue paper and then inked them in brown with a sponge. I just did this free style with my trimmer and stylus and eyeballed the measurements. I used my marker for the faux stitching. I typically don’t do color challenges but the timing of the My Time to Craft post fit with my plans to make this card and the direction I wanted to go with it.

Glitter and bling are among my favorite things! Well, among them and high on the list – really how do I pick just two!! I have seen many cards done where the papers are all matted but this is the first time I have done it and I have to say I like mine just as much as I like everyone else’s! I think I will be doing more of this. I’m not too worried about running out of paper. As I was making this I started wondering – does coloring get hard as you get older?? I don’t have many stamps to color in but I really like the look of them. Apparantly, I don’t know how to color! I guess that’s something for me to work on this year. I just never thought of it as a hard thing to do and now I’m starting to think that it is. I just love this fairy that was sent to me. I might have to start buying more stamps to color because I don’t have any detailed ones. I tend to stick to the simple stamps or two-step stamping because it’s faster. It is faster but I really am liking the colored look. This could be a good idea for my Christmas money. Well, enough rambling. It’s taken me long enough to make this card without prolonging it any further. I hope you enjoy it! Oh – just one more thing – the stamped image was sent to me and I wanted it cut smaller but I could not get it cut straight for anything – therefore I distressed the edges! It’s a great technique to fool the eye!